To Anwar Ibrahim’s lawyers, please plan a proper strategy ahead as you guys have no clue how to defend your client.
First of all, how can the police arbitrarily demand for your client’s DNA samples? Secondly, how can your client be subjected to medical examination when there is no evidence that anything has happened to the accuser? How can you guys allow your client to be branded guilty until proven innocent?
Saiful accused Anwar of sodomising him. Before Anwar is subjected to any medical tests, the police should allow free access to all medical reports by an independent panel of doctors. There must be at least the evidence of blunt trauma in Saiful’s anus, otherwise the claim of sodomy is not true.
After that, we need to establish if the blunt trauma was delivered by a solid object (eg, a stick) or through anal intercourse. Forensics experts should be able to identify it from the type of scarring incurred.
If it is established that blunt trauma was caused by anal intercourse, then swabs should be taken from the walls of the anus for DNA testing. If the DNA testing procedure turned up foreign DNA samples that do not belong to the victim, only then should the police have a reason to request for DNA samples for matching.
Right now, the police are asking for DNA samples for no rhyme and reason. If they do obtain some DNA samples, it could be planted inside Saiful’s anus even without the police providing the medical report proving that blunt trauma has been inflicted upon Saiful’s anus.
Come on, Sivarasa and Sankara Nair, please tighten your defense!
Furthermore, the police want to obtain a court order for Anwar to submit his DNA sample. If this can be challenged, then please, by all means, request for medical exam evidence that there was blunt trauma, and there’s the presence of foreign DNA in Saiful’s anus. Otherwise, before even proving that there’s foreign DNA in Saiful’s anus it makes no sense to obtain the DNA sample of a suspect.
This is a simple investigation procedure and the police are obviously trying to circumvent it.
Another major point is that Pak Lah and others involved are saying that the DNA samples are too old, and they need a new sample. This argument is severely flawed for many reasons. Firstly, polymerase chain reaction will be able to amplify and multiply fragments of DNA easily to increase the sample size for testing and sequencing.
Even if there are some degraded fragments (how much can DNA degrade over 10 years when kept in an evidence room away from sunlight?), PCR will be able to amplify and increase the good portions significantly.
Secondly, Anwar’s DNA sample has been sequenced in 1998. That’s the whole idea about DNA sequencing – once you have the DNA ‘fingerprint’, you don’t need to sequence it again each time the same suspect’s DNA sample is found. This is a simple concept.
This is the reason why DNA databases work – you just keep the sequenced DNA information and it’s sufficient for reference and comparison. A DNA database doesn’t have everybody’s blood and semen samples stored in a massive facility. It’s just the data of DNA sequences for every individual, that’s all.
When all these are taken into account, there are many reasons to turn down the request for fresh DNA samples.
1. There is no evidence presented that Saiful had blunt trauma to his anus
2. There is no evidence that there are traces of foreign DNA in Saiful’s anus which would warrant a DNA comparison with a suspect
3. An old DNA sample is sufficient for DNA testing as any good portion of the sample can be amplified through PCR
4. Someone’s DNA that has been sequenced before can be used again as forensics evidence. You don’t need to sequence someone’s DNA again and again with every new case or trial.
Anwar’s lawyers, please take these factors into account and strip the conspirators’ story bare!
